Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia

Latest release

Quarterly statistics on mineral and petroleum exploration expenditure by private organisations in Australia

Reference period
December 2022
Released
27/02/2023
  • Next Release 5/06/2023
    Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, March 2023
  • Next Release 4/09/2023
    Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, June 2023
  • Next Release 4/12/2023
    Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, September 2023
  • View all releases

Key statistics

  • Mineral exploration expenditure fell by 1.3%
  • Petroleum exploration expenditure fell by 9.9%
  Dec Qtr 22Sep Qtr 22 to Dec Qtr 22Dec Qtr 21 to Dec Qtr 22
  $m% change% change
Seasonally adjusted   
 Mineral Exploration Expenditure1,014-1.39.6
 Petroleum Exploration Expenditure203-9.9-32.0
     
Trend   
 Mineral Exploration Expenditure1,025-0.18.2
 Petroleum Exploration Expenditure200-11.9-34.2

Mineral exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted fall of 1.3% ($13.7m) to $1,013.6m

  • Trend fall of 0.1% ($1.4m) to $1,024.5m

Mineral exploration, by deposit type, original series

  • Fall of 5.1% ($56.3m) to $1,043.0m 
  • Existing deposits fell 9.1% ($68.9m) to $688.9m
  • New deposits rose 3.7% ($12.6m) to $354.1m

Mineral exploration, by mineral type, original series

  • Iron Ore recorded the largest fall (down 12.6%, $25.1m) to $174.9m
  • Nickel & Cobalt recorded the largest rise (up 11.1%, $8.8m) to $88.0m

(a) Selected Base Metals contains Copper, Silver, Lead & Zinc, and Nickel & Cobalt

(b) All Others contains Mineral Sands, Uranium, Diamonds and Other Minerals

Metres drilled, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 0.3% (9.0km) to 2,858.8km
  • Trend fall of 1.6% (46.6km) to 2,831.7km

Metres drilled, original series

  • Fall of 6.8% (210.7km) to 2,866.2km
  • Existing deposits fell 6.0% (128.8km) to 2,004.8km
  • New deposits fell 8.7% (81.9km) to 861.4km

Petroleum exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted fall of 9.9% ($22.3m) to $203.3m
  • Trend fall of 11.9% ($27.0m) to $200.2m

Onshore, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted fall of 11.4% ($17.5m) to $135.9m
  • Trend fall of 3.5% ($5.1m) to $139.6m

Offshore, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted fall of 6.5% ($4.7m) to $67.5m
  • Trend fall of 24.5% ($20.2m) to $62.3m

  

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Mineral Exploration - Quarterly mineral exploration expenditure and metres drilled

Petroleum Exploration - Quarterly petroleum expenditure

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8412.0.

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